Archive for December 2007
He was born today, eighty-four years ago, but died in 1995. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect back into time, and remember the influence he had on my life. Personal blog posts aren’t my thing, but I want the world to celebrate my grandfather’s birthday with me. I want the world to know the great influence he had on me. Isn’t that what birthdays are for?
This man, a husband for 54 years, a father to 11 kids, and grandfather to countless grandchildren decided to become an Obstetrician and serve the community. Whenever we went to the grocery store, he’d be stopped a gazillion times by people who knew him. A grocery store visit that should take only 15 minutes always ended up to be 30 minutes (add another 5 minutes of looking for junk food that would satisfy his sweet tooth).
Poppop loved to cheat in games, but in all fun. Whenever we played Scattergories, he would have some big fancy word. I’d put on my most appalling look and exclaim, “That’s not a word!” He’d put on his serious look and say, “What are you talking about? It is a medical term.” We’d demand he go get his medical dictionary to verify his words. Half of the words were made up, but I still kept playing games with him because of his warm laughter and teasing spirit.
He thought he was so hilarious, and he was. One time, he motioned me to come over to where he was standing, next to a beautiful plant. He said, “It’s growing. I can hear it, can you?” I fell for it. I put my ears close to the plant, but heard nothing. Then I realized he was full of it. I playfully slapped him and said, “Yeah right!”
There are many more memories that I’ll always treasure because they were lessons. Poppop (and Nana) taught me what unconditional love is, how to help others in need, and how to remember to laugh and find humor in things.
I won’t lie – I don’t think about Poppop so much anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love him. When someone dies, you think about them all the time, but as time goes by, the thoughts start to decrease. It’s been 12 years since he left us, but it has been zero days since he left my heart. The number will always will stay at zero.
Happy birthday, Poppop. I miss you.
Does silence scare us so much that we need to make our cars into living rooms? Do we no longer want to marvel in the beauty of a drive: looking at the blue skies, clear moon, or the leaves changing colors? Do we no longer want to think while in the car? The fact that we are away from our computers and television sets makes us such an addict that we need satellite TV in our cars?
Maybe if I had a screaming kid, I might appreciate the living room vehicle so I wouldn’t have to endure the famous, “Are we there yet?” question. Maybe the kid wouldn’t even notice us passing McDonald’s, so she or he wouldn’t be screaming, “Mommy, I need french fries, NOW!”
I know someone personally who has a Playstation system in his car. He plays the games at the red lights. I don’t even want to know if he plays while he’s driving, because if he does, I’d bite his arm off.
*gulp* I just realized I’m no better myself. I type rapidly on my sidekick while driving. Isn’t that worse than setting up a living room in the car?
Definitely. =/
For all you StumbleUpon addicts out there, this website is for you!
Best StumbleUpon Related Images out there on the ‘net.
I particularly like the one about uninstalling StumbleUpon when productivity levels get extremely low.
Love,
The girlfriend of a StumbleUpon addict who will get arthritis in his index finger from constantly clicking, you guessed it, “STUMBLE!”
It is that time of the year again – Christmas shopping. I go straight to Amazon, because it has almost everything you can buy! Right on the front page, there’s this weird device called the Kindle. Apparently, the Kindle is a wireless reading device that the Amazon team came up with. I have no idea how the name was derived, so don’t ask me about the name. Honestly, I keep erroneously calling it the Kringle. It really just sounds like a Christmas ornament. Or some lame 80’s device.
Actually, in my opinion, it does look like a bulky 80’s device. Afraid I somehow fell into a time vessel, I had to make sure I was still in 2007. Yes, indeed it is 2007. Clearly Steve Jobs did not assist with the Kringle, oops I mean Kindle. The designs on many wireless things nowadays is mind-blowing for us, who grew up watching technology go from big and bulky to small and sleek. Sony makes their own e-readers and it is one thousand times better looking than the Kindle. Amazon, call Steve Jobs. Stat.
After looking into the curious screaming 80’s device, I came up with a list of cons:
-You cannot view PDF files on the Kindle. This is nuts because most of our documents are PDF’s.
-Because of Digital Rights Management (DRM), you cannot “lend” a book you downloaded on your Kindle by transferring to someone else’s Kindle. You would have to actually give someone your Kindle to read your book. In other words, you’re extremely limited to do what you want with what you paid for! You cannot resell it, either.
-Hard on the eyes? I don’t know about you, but when I look at a computer screen or my sidekick for a long period of time, I get a bit cross-eyed and then I start to look like Jim Carrey.
-The Kindle is odorless. Where is the musty paper smell that you find from paper books? I don’t desire a replacement for those paperbacks I can cuddle up in bed and fall asleep with. Under no circumstances do I want to fall asleep with a weird technology device for fear the radiation would seep through into my guts.
Okay, enough cons!! Now let’s move onto the pros:
-Saves paper
-*thinks…* Um. Help?
Kringle Claus, please don’t bring me the Kindle for Christmas. Unless I’ve been naughty.
